A log entering a sawmill is initially sawed into lumber pieces (hereinafter referred to as cants) having flat and parallel top and bottom surfaces but unfinished longitudinal side surfaces or wanes. The wanes of a cant may be very irregular and are usually oblique to the top and bottom surfaces thereof. The cants are run through an edger to trim the wanes such as to produce wood pieces having parallel sides which are planar and perpendicular to the top and bottom surfaces of the cants.
Conventional edgers generally comprise various transfer mechanisms which are adapted to transversally transport successive cants. For instance, a conventional edger positioning apparatus typically comprises belt conveyors having cant engaging members mounted at regular intervals on the belts of the belt conveyors. The mounting of the cants on the belt is challenging. Due to the high rotation speeds of the belt and to the forces transferred from the cant engaging members to the belt while carrying the cants, the cant engaging members need to be firmly attached to the belt. However, the mounting arrangement should not weaken or compromise the structural integrity of the belt. The mounting arrangement should not result in premature wear of the belt as a result of a shearing action of the cant engaging member on the belt. Relative movement and friction between the cant engaging members and the belt should be avoided as much as possible. The points of attachment of the cant engaging members to the belt are highly stress regions. Solutions to lessen the level of stress at the point of attachment and provide a better distribution of the loads over the surface of the belt are, thus, suitable.